Burden of the last man standing
by StardustSeiyaryu
Summary: Paradox - the last surviving human being - is traveling this lonely planet now, looking for a place to stay - eventually. A little glimpse on his -maybe - last thoughts and actions.


_**Author´s note:**  
_

_This fic was highly inspired by a FanArt - it just came to my mind._

It´s all about paradox and some of his final thoughts and actions, travelling a world which is now dead...pretty much..  


_»He had walked a thousand miles - no, more. Ways more, but at some point Paradox had simply stopped counting.  
No matter where he went…no matter which area he reached, or which landscapes he was passing, all he could see were ruins._

Cities, all destroyed - buildings, broken down, former streets - empty now.  
A once beautiful and lively forest was now dry wasteland with some old trees.  
What had once been a refreshing and crystal-clear lake was gone - leaving behind a little crater.

_His world had stopped existing the way he had known it - and with it , all of his friends and family had been erased too._  
_His world, which had once been so wonderful and amazing was destroyed - he was the last one to walk over the fallen ashes - the last man standing._

_Paradox could take it._

_ He just had to cope with it - no matter how, or else he´d go insane – soon, /too/ soon._  
_Some days were hard - nearly unbearable._  
_This was the time when he missed his beloved ones that had passed away - some due to illnesses and diseases that came up all of a sudden, some due to the horrible war which had left so many scars on the earth´s surface._  
_On days like this he often felt the urge to just take a gun, a knife, a broken piece of glass… anything, that could finally redeem him , but in the end he always ended up still being alive… eventually cursing himself for this later on._

_Luckily some days were also good - he could easily continue his travel to nowhere, he could look over all the destruction around him, hell… rarely he was also able to smile, even if it was nothing more than a sad, melancholic grin, that just popped up when he lost himself in memories of the old days, but that didn´t matter._

_Today, even tough, was no good day._  
_Paradox sighed and sat down on something that had once been some kind of staircase._  
_The building in which he was right now was partly wrecked - the front wall was completely missing and so he had a wonderful sight at all the emptiness in front of him, which now - like so often - wanted to drive him insane, but however.. he just needed some shelter from the sun - and the former skyscraper fulfilled this purpose just fine._  
_Right now he was craving some rest - he´d continue his march later on._  
_"Just concentrate on recollecting… just concentrate…just…"_

_He gave up, shook his head in a silent gesture of resignation._  
_His blond hair flew through the air and for a moment the young man was tempted to touch it._  
_His mother had always said how beautiful it looked in the bright sunlight - and then she would pat him on the head and carefully run her long fingers through one of the strands. smiling like the proudest mother on earth._  
_His mum had always been fascinated by her son´s hair and he had always been annoyed when she pointed out how perfetly the blue-purple-ish and the blond-tone matched each other._

_"You´re so cute when you pout like this!" "Mom! I´m not cute! And also I am /not/ pouting!"_  
_What would he give to hear her words again?_

_Paradox didn´t feel any better after half an hour (time didn´t matter anymore, however he had always had a pretty good sense for estimating durations…), the young male was always followed by a strange, tired feeling, so he didn´t pay real attention to it._

_The sun was still hot, burning down without mercy and a little breeze would have been like a gift - __sent from the gods, but all the gods they had once believed in and prayed to were dead now._  
_Calm, taking step by step, he stumbled over the wreckage._  
_He needed to find a good place for the night - ignoring the lack of dangers like wild animals.  
There were still the horribly cold nights, which could easily take him down._

_As Paradox made his way through the former parts of Domino he suddenly stopped, scanning the area in front of him._  
_Something had catched his attention - he just needed to find out what it had been._  
_Decreasing his speed the young man made a few steps further, looking around quite irritated._  
_Did he start imagining surreal things now?_  
_No - he didn´t._

_It struck him like a punch in the face, but when he came back to realization he couldn´t help but run- no, dash forward._  
_Dash to a little spot about 100 metres away from him and there he fell down on his knees._

_Paradox felt upcoming tears in his eyes - he couldn´t help but cry._  
_Carefully, as if he was about to discover the world´s most precious and most fragile treasure, he touched the little flower in front of him, before he dug his hands into the earth, lifting the plant together with it´s roots and some earth._

_Life._  
_He wasn´t the last being that was still alive - he wasn´t all alone._  
_This flower had somehow survived - this little, fragile flower, not bigger than his two hands._  
_This was the most beautiful thing he had seen during the last months - and it sure was the prettiest thing on earth._  
_"There is hope.. there just /needs/ to be hope..", still crying he whispered this words over and over again._  
_"There has to be a place where more plants are… a place which isn´t completely destroyed… and maybe I´m not the last human being… maybe there are other people...or perhaps our planet...is finally recovering...getting better..."_

_Deep inside of him, Paradox´ subconscience knew better._  
_He would die - pretty soon to be exact, for it got harder and harder to find things to eat.  
There were no animals he could hunt – so even the best gun he carried around with him, was pretty useless.  
There were no trees with fruit either ...he´d die by starvation._

_He would die - and with him humankind would be finally erased - the planet would be on it´s own again and eventually recover over the next centuries, or so.  
At last Paradox hoped it would – then at least one good thing would have happened in the end._

_There would be no place for human beings anymore - no place for him._

_Paradox knew it all, but right now… he just wanted to pretend that everything was okay._

_"It will all… be… alright again.. . . I will go on and find myself a new place.. I won´t be alone...won´t be alone...never again..._

_… never... again.."_

_**Author´s Note:**  
_

_...I hope you liked it o3 o  
_


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